One Tree Hill, I have been reading your thread over the last few days, and it is great! Wonderful pictures, and I love the fact that even though you take picures professionaly, not all of the pics were "set up". We get to see what Castaway Key actually looks like!

And as far as finding travel information, you couldn't be more right. We are planning our first cruise, and I have learned sooooo much here! Can't wait until 2014!

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Thank you. I honestly had no intentions of doing a trip report, without notes it has made the writing a little more difficult. That gives me a reason to go back though, right? We are looking at the Fantasy next fall. What ship are you guys planning to go on? We want to try them all! I'm just scared now to try the older ones, after cruising on The Dream first.

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I apologize for everything being out of order again. Now these are the pictures I took upon arrival, and on the first outing. I was trying to document every little detail in case I missed something and had questions about it later.

This is taken from our balcony.

Everyone took their sweet time getting dressed. Three kids that are in no hurry, story of my life. Next we went up to Cabanas for some breakfast. They had something for everyone on that buffet! DD introduced me to some friends she had met in Edge the night before, and finally we were all done and ready to go. Felt like it took us six hours to get off the ship and onto the island!

One of the first things I noticed was a sign saying all excursions had been canceled for the day. We didn't have anything booked, but I'm sure that upset a lot of people. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not sure why they were all canceled. The weather was a little stormy looking but it never did more than rain, not that we saw anyway. By late afternoon it was bright and sunny out.

When the tram stopped we were let off near the gift shop we went back to at the end of the day. We had picked out what we wanted to buy, but didn't want to get anything 'til we were on the way out. My husband loves to shop. Most women would find this exciting, me, not so much. He knows now I'd rather him buy me a palm tree than roses. C'mon now...palm trees last many years and they continue to grow. Cut flowers last a few days then blah. I know, I am not a "normal" woman. Anyway, he wanted this hat.

He ended up buying a t shirt instead.

Not this one...

Not the orange one either, although he considered that one.

DS looks like he's having fun, huh?

Finally off to check out the sites of Castaway Cay!

Oh look. The Dream is such a beauty over there...

Not sure what kind of pictures I will need later so let's take one more!

Oh, for those that may need a beach wheel chair they are available here. They had beach strollers for babies too!

This looked a little bit like the new Fatasyland area behind the restrooms near the train.

They were getting ready for lunch on the island!

By the way ya'll, the food was pretty good over there. They had yummy pineapple upside down cake. They had those famous chocolate chip cookies too. I didn't really care much for those to be honest. I had some fish and a spicy chicken sandwich. Both delicious! I do have some buffet pictures, and I will add those next time. My hands are literally about to freeze off and I still have some testing to do before bed. Until next time...

I kind of wish we would have had a few weeks to plan our trip, but it was last second. I learned a lot though. I'm beginning to think hurricane season is an excellent time to travel. Our cruise could have been extra slow seeing that we traveled on 9-11. I didn't even realize it at the time.

I've been working all night, and I only have time for a small update. I still have more Castaway Cay to add, but I want to do a food post first! DCL announced the Jamaica ports today and I am itching to take one of those cruises. I have to make it happen. Who else is going to Jamaica? Shoot, some of you may be booked already. I see that they're adding stops to some cruises already booked. I would be stoked if they added it to mine.

So, once again my pics are out of order. What's the fun of order though? This baby here I would love to have right now with my coffee. Yes, it's 2:22 in the morning and I'm drinking coffee. Hmm, maybe that's why I can't sleep well at night. Anyway, this dessert was Sidney's. When I sampled it I wanted it all, but I let him keep it. I will say this, the alcohol content was right on. I do see now why they do NOT allow kids to eat the desserts with liquor in them. Had I eaten two of these I would have been lit up for the evening. Did I tell ya'll ~ one night Sidney went up to the beverage thingy up by the pool to get him some tea and me some coffee. On the way back three tipsy (drunk) ladies, in their 50's or 60's (he said they look to be our moms ages), trampled into the elevator with him. Well, more like ON HIM. The coffee went all over one of them and Sidney, mainly on the woman because he held it away from him as it came out. He was still burned though. It was bad enough that he had to get treated for it. Not treated, but they gave him something to put on the burn, and followed up on it the next day. Thank goodness my hair bear is hairy. I'm sure that helped.

Okay, back to the dessert. It was delicious! Next time I'm having two.

Cabanas...but not on Alternative night.

One night we were starving so we went to Cabanas to grab something quick before our dinner. Well, they did not have a buffet going on. Instead it was an alternative sit down meal. We told them we only wanted a quick bite, and they insisted we come on in and try something on the menu. (Dinner was less than an hour away so I didn't want to eat too much) Sidney and my oldest DS tried the steaks.

DD and I had the pasta (which was the appetizer we had the night before at AP) Same size and everything but at Cabanas it was a meal.

DS6 just got a kids meal, tenders and fries I think. He thought the kectchup was funny.

Someone really loved this steak! He said it was the best one he had the whole trip.

Filling up on bread...

We didn't have dessert or anything. Dinner was coming up, and we wanted to save some room for that. The pasta we had was the perfect prelude to dinner.

After a couple of fun pictures with this guy we headed to our nightly dinner event.

The alternative restaurant only had two other tables in it. They were busy with a lot of room service orders. Well, I assume that's what they were doing. They had huge trays of food set up ready to go somewhere. The service over there was wonderful, just as good as the regular wait staff. They took good care of us. I think we may choose the earlier dining time on our next cruise with the show afterwards. We had a long time in between meals this past trip, and the fast food pizza/sandwich counters just didn't do it for me and Sidney. The kids were fine with it, but after a couple of days I was done.

Oh...one more thing. SANITIZER WIPES. DCL loves to hand out these wipes. For those of you who have cruised you know what I mean by this. Those of you going on your first cruise be prepared. You will get wipes before you enter a restaurant, like it or not.

Thank you. I honestly had no intentions of doing a trip report, or becoming a travel agent while we were on this cruise. Had I known I would have taken better pictures for my website and FB pages. That gives me a reason to go back though, right? We are looking at the Fantasy next fall. What ship are you guys planning to go on? We want to try them all! I'm just scared now to try the older ones, after cruising on The Dream first.

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I think that last comment I left came out wrong. I LOVE the fact that they were normal everyday cruise pictures. I can always go to the Disney site, or any TA website, and see the "perfect" pictures, but I always feel like those pictures don't tell the whole story. Your pictures were beautifully done, and I appreciate you taking the time to share them.

We are looking at the Dream, since we want to do a short Bahama cruise during the summer months. This will be our first cruise, and my oldest son is autistic so we're a little worried about how he will be. But I hear that the disney cast members are wonderful, which is why we are going with Disney. I can't wait!

I think that last comment I left came out wrong. I LOVE the fact that they were normal everyday cruise pictures. I can always go to the Disney site, or any TA website, and see the "perfect" pictures, but I always feel like those pictures don't tell the whole story. Your pictures were beautifully done, and I appreciate you taking the time to share them.

We are looking at the Dream, since we want to do a short Bahama cruise during the summer months. This will be our first cruise, and my oldest son is autistic so we're a little worried about how he will be. But I hear that the disney cast members are wonderful, which is why we are going with Disney. I can't wait!

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I knew what you meant.

They are very good to the kids in the clubs, and there's so much for them to do. My friends with autistic children rave about Disney. They always go out of their way to make sure the kids are taken care of. A 3 or 4 night on the Dream is a great starter cruise. I did the same thing because I wasn't sure how the kids would like it. Only one of mine had sailed previously. Now they all want to try a 7 night or longer. You can go into the kids clubs too at certain times. They do family events for everyone to enjoy. I liked that the most.

I am really enjoying your trip report. Sometimes a good rain can be a blessing in disguise. I have never seen pictures of CC where there were so few people. We were in Epcot one day after a heavy rain and it was similar, we walked around and there was no one!

You now having me wanting to check out all the bathrooms on the ship! Very fancy, and you are right about the Palo/Remy bathroom looking like it belongs in Vegas. Maybe dd and I will do that one day, dh won't understand...

I am really enjoying your trip report. Sometimes a good rain can be a blessing in disguise. I have never seen pictures of CC where there were so few people. We were in Epcot one day after a heavy rain and it was similar, we walked around and there was no one!

You now having me wanting to check out all the bathrooms on the ship! Very fancy, and you are right about the Palo/Remy bathroom looking like it belongs in Vegas. Maybe dd and I will do that one day, dh won't understand...

Looking forward to the next installment.

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Yes, she and I are starting to look more alike now. She used to look more like her daddy.

Rain at Disney can be fun, as long as it's warm, there's no lightning, and my good camera is in the car. On our June trip it poured. AK cleared out to a point where there was no one at all. It was pretty cool. I also had a waterproof camera at the time so the pics were great.

I can't believe our next vacation is a few days away. My master bathroom is in pieces, literally it was ripped down to the dirt and is being built back. Talk about stress! O M G! It's about to make me crazy. The entire house is in disarray. My dog's surgery was rescheduled to next week Sidney mixed up the dates. I have a new cat who has decided he's going to be an indoor cat, not an outdoor cat. (I'm allergic to cats, but anyway, I love him so he wins out for now.) <---Of course I have nowhere for him to stay, inside, while I am away at Disney for two weeks. I just ordered clothes for the trip. (They may not arrive in time) I've yet to order my sons birthday cake, or buy the stuff for his Disney World party (working on that later today). Ahhhhhhhhh. What to do, what to do. I could use a cloning machine right about now.

Let's do one more food update before I go back and finish Castaway Cay. This one is for Enchanted Garden. When coming onto the Disney Dream we were told food was available at Enchanted Garden or Cabanas. We chose EG thinking it would be a nicer sit down choice, but instead it was a buffet. To be honest I did not care for that meal at all. It was just run of the mill. Next time we will go to Cabanas. They always had a huge selection of food to choose from. I feel sure it was the same that day.

Our second dinner was at Enchanted Garden. The dinner was a whole different story. It was very good, and the restaurant is just beautiful. We wanted one of those adorable teacup tables but they max out at four people, we're five.

This was the menu

Gorgeous, isn't it?

When I called to book our cruise they asked me if we were celebrating anything. I told them no, but it was the "birthday" gift my kids chose. My youngest two have birthdays in Oct and Nov and said they wanted the cruise and that it could be their birthday gift. The lady asked me a few more questions, and said she'd do a little something for them at dinner one night. I wasn't sure what all that meant, but we found out that evening at Enchanted Garden.

My little guy just loved formal dinner every night. He thought that was the neatest thing ever.

I think we all just enjoyed having a break from life. No grocery shopping, no cooking, and no cleaning for a few days. Surprisingly the kids tried a lot of new things. I was proud of them. Here are some of our appetizers...

This was the best of all!

My daughter loved these lights...

The entrees came out...

The fish was wonderful, but the rice, not so much. A little too crunchy for our liking. I honestly don't think it was cooked long enough. The guys ate up their steaks. DD too, so they must have been good. Remember, we had been at Cabanas already so the rice wasn't a big issue. We started this meal half full.

Our servers were the best on the ship. They went above and beyond...

Everything, except for the rice, was exquisite. Dessert too, but we will have to get that posted tomorrow. I will put up the birthday celebration pictures too. Duty calls, tiles need to be laid. Until next time...